When I lived in the UK I made it a point, for most of my working life, never to work on a Friday. Even if that meant working all weekend to keep up. Though if I ever did work a weekend I never told anyone as I found that an air of wonder about my short working hours helped keep fee rates up and improve people's recall of the odd consultant they enjoyed hiring or the strangely valuable yet difficult employee they never quite got round to firing.
The thing is though, it always made Fridays seem special and my wife and I could often accomplish more fun and general good stuff on a Friday than most people over a whole vacation.
Now we live in the Middle East and in the Muslim world where Friday is a holy day. Kinda like a Christian Sunday or Jewish Sabbath. Every one sleeps in late, goes to the mosque, families hang out together, the world is generally quiet until quite late and there is not a lot of noisy traffic. Until the evening, when it becomes party and shopping time. This works well because Saturday is also the weekend and people have the second day to recover. Then back to work on Sunday.
Unless your clients, like most of mine, are in the US or EU. When Sunday is their Friday. Not much to do; so I don't often work Sundays.
I've still got my Fridays off thought the special frisson of illicit goofing off is transferred to Sunday. But it's odd, even after living here a good while I still feel ever so slightly guilty 'bout not working Friday, just like before. It's my anchor.
Even though I earn my living helping companies and countries adapt to change I don't like it any more than anyone else. It's all around me of course just as it's all around everyone else. It's wholly unavoidable and yet omnipresent. Get over it; get used to it.
Which is where Friday comes in.
About the best tool you have to deal with constant and accellerating change is an anchor. Something that doesn't change; there's always something. It might be your family, your kids or spouse. It might be your home, your hobby, some aspect of your work or study, a hobby, a sport. But something; there's always something. Find it and cherish it so that as the economy makes a bumpy handcart trip to a hot climate you remain cool and collected and unjolted by the constant battering of reality. While your industry rockets to infinity and beyond overnight you can still come back to something familiar every night.
There will be something; there's always something. I've got Fridays.
The thing is though, it always made Fridays seem special and my wife and I could often accomplish more fun and general good stuff on a Friday than most people over a whole vacation.
Now we live in the Middle East and in the Muslim world where Friday is a holy day. Kinda like a Christian Sunday or Jewish Sabbath. Every one sleeps in late, goes to the mosque, families hang out together, the world is generally quiet until quite late and there is not a lot of noisy traffic. Until the evening, when it becomes party and shopping time. This works well because Saturday is also the weekend and people have the second day to recover. Then back to work on Sunday.
Unless your clients, like most of mine, are in the US or EU. When Sunday is their Friday. Not much to do; so I don't often work Sundays.
I've still got my Fridays off thought the special frisson of illicit goofing off is transferred to Sunday. But it's odd, even after living here a good while I still feel ever so slightly guilty 'bout not working Friday, just like before. It's my anchor.
Even though I earn my living helping companies and countries adapt to change I don't like it any more than anyone else. It's all around me of course just as it's all around everyone else. It's wholly unavoidable and yet omnipresent. Get over it; get used to it.
Which is where Friday comes in.
About the best tool you have to deal with constant and accellerating change is an anchor. Something that doesn't change; there's always something. It might be your family, your kids or spouse. It might be your home, your hobby, some aspect of your work or study, a hobby, a sport. But something; there's always something. Find it and cherish it so that as the economy makes a bumpy handcart trip to a hot climate you remain cool and collected and unjolted by the constant battering of reality. While your industry rockets to infinity and beyond overnight you can still come back to something familiar every night.
There will be something; there's always something. I've got Fridays.
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